Playwright: Young Jean Lee. At: Red Tape Theatre, 621 W. Belmont. Tickets: www.redtapetheatre.org; $5-$25. Runs through: March 5
These one-act plays by Korean-American playwright Young Jean Lee have nothing to do with her Korean heritage. Her subject is born-again religion or, to be more accurate, religiosity. They aren't the same thing, the latter reflecting the worst type of accept-Jesus-or-be-damned, I-love-you-but-I-pity-you attitudes of Bible-thumping Christianity. You cannot have a metaphysical discussion with such folk because they don't accept that matters of faith cannot be proven, and that your faithor lack of itis equally correct. So, these plays made me extremely uncomfortable and I don't quite understand why Red Tape selected them for production, as capable as that production is.
They are performed in a church halla perfect setting for these workswhich Red Tape divides into two environments. The audience moves from one section to the other between plays. The first play, Pullman, WA (although the program doesn't specify the order of performance) makes use of primitive institutional lunch tables and the hall's bare brick walls. For the second play, Church, Red Tape has constructed a smaller, cozier church hall within the real hall, with décor suited to a children's Sunday school.
In the first play, a poised woman tells us she will reveal the secrets of how to live, which involve social skills, suffering and understanding that "You ARE you." But she's interrupted by another woman who speaks of "rainbow-colored balloons in a sky filled with jack rabbits" and insists "You are safe." OK, I figured, they represent the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of each individual. But then the third guy comes on, proclaiming "I am an angel of the Lord," having splitting headaches and somehow triggering an epiphany in which hellish, monstrous Bosch-like figures are revealed. So, no, I don't understand it.
The second play was easier, more direct: a church service with four preachers who sermonize in a variety of ways (do you know The Parable of the Tuna and the Bird or the dangers of mummies?), ending with a rousing gospel choir. Trouble is, you're in a closed room with forced participation.
What playwright Lee does with both is to begin in a totally realistic and believable fashion. The performance style of the works remains realistic, but gradually the speakers wax more and more fantastical and absurd. Alas, it's done so dryly that true believers may take the entire trip without ever realizing when the joke begins ... and that's scary. The plays lack emotionally engaging stories or characters, so I found them of intellectual interest only, other than my overall reaction to the enforced Christianity. Still, they are well-presented by director James Palmer and his ensemble of artists, who merge acting, design, music, choreography and environment into an effective presentation.